Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, Japan's most popular media personality and
internationally acclaimed film director, will be the subject of a
retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image. The series includes preview screenings of Kitano's most recent films. The program is May 15 - 21. Visit their site for more information.

UBC Department of Psychiatry and Pacific Cinémathèque present the 1st Annual Frames of Mind Mental Health Film Festival: four days and nights of screenings, workshops and discussion, centered on issues of mental health and the cinema at the Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver May 13 - 16. Go to their site for more information.

The Toronto International Film Festival is accepting submissions for Canadian feature-length and short films, as well as for International feature-length films. The submission deadlines are as follows: April 30 for Canadian short films; May 14 for Canadian feature-length films; and June 11 for International feature-length films. Please be advised that the Festival does not accept unsolicited films under 50 minutes from any country other than Canada. The 29th Toronto International Film Festival will take place September 9-18. For more information, rules, and to download appropriate applications, visit their web site.

The American Jewish Film Festival which takes place November 6th-7th
(deadline, June 15th) in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois will mark the 350th year of the arrival of the first Jews to the U.S. Chicago-based Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in collaboration with Reeltime Independent Film & Video
Forum, is hosting this festival to celebrate American Jewish life. Main focus of films should contain themes relating to Jewish life in the United States. The festival is non-competitive and no entry fees are required. All genres accepted. For more information, visit their web site.

Filmmakers are invited to submit their films (Feature/ Short/ Doc) for the fourth annual IAAC Film Festival: The Indian Diaspora, November 4-7, 2004. The event includes films made by people of Indian origin living outside India. Films made by non-Indians with Indian content (plot, theme, actors, location, protagonist) will also be considered. Visit their site for more details and an application.

Seeking financing for your script? Completion
funds for your work-in-progress? Trying to sell
your doc? The IFP Market is one of the best events in the U.S.
to introduce new work to an industry-only audience of sales companies,
distributors, festival programmers, television
buyers, producers, and agents from the U.S. and
abroad. Visit their site for more information.

New York's Urbanworld Film Festival, set for August 4 - 8, 2004, is now accepting entries. The deadling for submissions is June 4th. the event showcases urban, ethnic and multicultural cinema and this year will add a music video section, as part of its new sponsorship by MTV2.

Peter Biskind, author of the much talked about "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film," will talk about the book on May 4th at Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan. The event is hosted by the Harvard Independent Film Group.

Cinematexas, the international short film fest in Austin, TX is seeking entries for its 9th festival (September 22 - 26, 2004). The early entry deadline is May 21st and the late deadline is June 4th.

Film Forum in Manhattan will present a six-week, 34 film retrospective of the work of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. The series will run from May 21 - July 1, including a one-week run for a new 35mm print of "Fanny and Alexander" (May 21 - 27). Among the movies set to screen are Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, The Magic Flute, The Virgin Spring, The Magician, Cries and Whispers and Autumn Sonata, and the complete version of Scenes from a Marriage, as well as early Bergman films from Swedish archives.

May 30th is the new deadline for the Cinevue International Film Competition for films and scripts. For more information, please visit their website.